Clock starts on power plant offer

by ryan severance
the pueblo chieftain

Published: July 27, 2014;Last modified: July 28, 2014 10:27AM

Should it be a farmers market? A condominium complex? A recreation center?

City officials met with about 30 community members Saturday morning to discuss what the city of Pueblo should do if it chooses to accept Black Hills Energy’s Power Station 5 & 6 located Downtown at 105 South Victoria Avenue.

Black Hills is offering the building, which was constructed in 1922, to the city. Turbines were shut down there in 2011 while Black Hills was building its new generating station north of Pueblo Memorial Airport.

If the community doesn’t find a use for the building, Black Hills plans to demolish it in April 2015, just as it is now demolishing the old coal-fired power plant in Canon City, Christopher Burke, Black Hills’ vice president for its Colorado operations, said at the meeting which was held at NeighborWorks of Pueblo.

“This facility in Pueblo, we have options. We have a timeframe during which we want to make sure that the community has an opportunity to weigh in and address any kind of options they’d like to see with this facility,” Burke said. “Numerous communities across the country have taken facilities like this and turned them into any number of community-type assets whether it be rock climbing walls, restaurants, athletic facilities or theaters. It’s really up to you.”

The building, which is about 18,300 square-feet in total, has some environmental concerns that come with it.

Burke said a Phase I and Phase II environmental study revealed that there are minor levels of polychlorinated biphenyls on site and there’s some asbestos inside the facility itself.

“During the numerous upgrades that have taken place over the past decades, much of that asbestos has been remediated but there is still some there,” Burke said. “Essentially what it shows is, for all intents and purposes, the site is relatively clean for an industrial facility dating back to 1922.”

Another issue with anyone taking over the building exists due to the fact that there is so much equipment inside of the building.

Burke said whether or not that equipment would be removed all depends on who ends up with the building.

“It could be a shell where someone takes out the industrial equipment or it could be anything in between as having everything in it as it is today.”

Most people in the audience at Saturday’s meeting were in favor of the idea of the city taking over the building and repurposing it.

“I hope the result of this meeting is that the demolition is not our first preferred choice,” Wade Broadhead, a community member, said. “I would think with the size of this building, it could be used for multiple things. I hope we try and reuse the building and work with the city and come up with a funding scheme.”

City Councilwoman Sandy Daff led a lengthy discussion with community members about what could be done with the building if the city does decide to take it.

An assortment of ideas were thrown out but the one that seemed to gain the most traction in the room was the notion of turning it into a recreation center.

“I’m in high school and always around kids and I know that a recreation center is something they are very interested in. They want an area to go hang out with their friends or play sports or whatever,” Winter Roybal, a community member, said. “I know a lot of kids would go there and spend a lot of time there.”

A significant concern the city has about taking the building is the potential costs associated with any kind of project that might be done there.

One solution discussed at the meeting was what’s called “Brownfields,” which is a program that provides public and private property owners with resources to facilitate cleanups at abandoned industrial facilities and other issues that may otherwise languish and hinder economic development. There also are tax credit programs to encourage investors.

Daff said another environmental study would need to be done at the building since the last one was done at least more than six months ago.

“We’ll have to conduct that study so we can get some Brownfields dollars,” Daff said. “This is not something the city is taking lightly. We’re being very thoughtful about how we move forward on this and definitely crunching numbers. We want to be contemplative about it and also reflective of our community.”

Future community meetings regarding this issue will be scheduled, Daff said.